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The financially challenging work of creative professionals is a widely recognized concern, and uncovering the root causes of such challenges requires more explorations into the impact of personal factors on income generation. Accordingly, we investigated the significance of 400 creative professionals' entrepreneurial or artistic identities and business skills in their income adequacy on the basis of role identity theory. Our findings show that business skills support the likelihood of income adequacy but that artistic identity reduces it. The combination of entrepreneurial identity with business skills increases income adequacy, whereas entrepreneurial identity alone has no influence. These results point to the complexity of individuals' income formation and the need to study the outcomes of different work identities and their interplay with various skills. They imply that assuming an artistic identity can be an economic liability. Hence, our study implies that enabling creative and innovative work to prosper necessitates that creative professionals develop an adaptive, artistic–entrepreneurial meta‐identity, in addition to enhancing their business skills, so that they can adjust between possible selves in different situations and work environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurship may be the only viable solution for finding employment in rural areas because of their limited labor markets. However, how curricular and extracurricular entrepreneurial activities can support the entrepreneurial potential of rural youth remains a question. Using a mixed-methods approach, we investigate the impact of curricular and extracurricular entrepreneurial activities on rural adolescents' entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and desirability. Our findings show that extracurricular entrepreneurial activities, especially inventive and commercial ones, enhance both ESE and entrepreneurial desirability, but formal curricular entrepreneurial activities do not. Our study highlights how extracurricular entrepreneurial activities can support young people's perceptions of their entrepreneurial potential while allowing them to explore and exploit local entrepreneurial opportunities. These activities are vital for rural areas to enable rural youth to see opportunities in their local surroundings and consider entrepreneurship as a career option early in life. The implications suggest that rural entrepreneurship education could leverage naturally occurring opportunities for leisure-time entrepreneurial activities in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies show that growth is an important goal for businesses, but little is known of how the entrepreneurial orientation-performance relationship works in family businesses and how this differs from their nonfamily peers. We examine that and how entrepreneurial activity mediates the relationship in family and nonfamily businesses. Our results on 532 firms show that family businesses benefit from innovative orientation, which is both directly and indirectly associated with firm growth via entrepreneurial activity. This association does not exist in nonfamily businesses. Furthermore, risk taking does not influence family business growth even if it does in nonfamily businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to find out whether partner commitment to export co-operation leads to a higher degree of success. A distinction was made between commitment to internationalisation, to co-operation, and to the group, and the role of these factors in successful co-operation was examined. A Finnish promotion programme-export circles-was selected as the focus of the study. All of the participant firms from the years 1998-2002 were contacted in autumn 2003, and the majority of them agreed to take part: the response rate was 75 per cent. The findings indicate that the different types of commitment are related to success in export co-operation, particularly in terms of the achievement of financial objectives and the impact on the internationalisation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of the type of support and Pd concentration profile in alumina and silica supported egg-shell catalysts and their performance in the hydrogenation of 2-ethylanthraquinone (eAQ) were studied in ‘Anthra’ (AQ) and ‘All-Tetra’ systems. The activity and deactivation of catalysts were determined in the fixed-bed reactor. Solution saturated with hydrogen, (concentration of active quinones 60g/dm3, eAQ in the AQ system, 30% of eAQ and 70% of H4eAQ–2-ethlytetrahydroanthraquinone, in the All-Tetra system) was circulated through the catalyst bed at temperature 50°C and pressure 5bar. The contents of eAQ, active quinones, H4eAQ and degradation products were determined in the course of hydrogenation by GC method. The egg-shell palladium catalysts (1–2wt% Pd) prepared by the precipitation of palladium hydroxide onto alumina and silica supports pre-impregnated with various alkaline (NaHCO3, NaH2PO4, Na2SiO3) solutions were used in the hydrogenation experiments. Pd concentration profile inside the grains of catalysts was characterized by scanning electron microscopy. A difference between alumina and silica carriers with respect to the course of side reactions producing degradation products was found. Degradation of quinones in the hydrogenolytic reactions predominated on alumina supported catalysts, while the catalysts with silica favoured the hydrogenation of aromatic rings resulting in H4eAQ-active quinone. As a crucial factor for the decrease in the activity during the hydrogenation run, the reactivity of catalyst in the hydrogenolytic reactions was established. Alumina supported catalysts exhibited much higher deactivation than those of silica supported ones. Silica carrier as well as silica species introduced onto alumina under pre-impregnation with Na2SiO3 exhibited an advantageous role in the catalyst performance, in terms of activity and deactivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]